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Yet another thrilling education article from the UK’s Telegraph, this time however, the news comes from Scotland!

This story revealed the secret to exam success. It’s puppies! Studies straight from Aberdeen University in Scotland show that students who spent time with a dog or puppy were significantly less stressed. The University held a trial earlier this year in February allowing students to pat and play with Labradors and Golden Retrievers before studying or undertaking an exam. The students and staff of the Uni experienced great success with the pooches.

“It really chilled them out… it would help push up grades”

The article also showed pets in the workplace had a significant effect on work morale and relationships among members of staff.

“Studies have shown that interaction with pets can reduce levels of cortisol – a hormone associated with stress – and releases endorphins”

Exam success here I come!!

The article had a substantial amount of research to back up the claims, with information coming from studies at universities such as Harvard and Yale – which have dogs on site that students can borrow like books to help relax!

This morning I was watching yet another of those video formatted news stories (on education of course), which was published by UK online newspaper The Telegraph. The video was named “Smaller class sizes lead to better educational outcomes”. May I start by saying, thanks for stating the obvious UK… really earth shattering news!

As I approached the video’s main content with sarcasm levels at a high, I thought; of course! We already know that smaller classes have better educational outcomes, more one to one time with student and teacher, which is essential to learning and greater education. So what was the purpose of the news story, if not to tell the audience something they already know?

Well the news itself may not have been very new or exciting, but the man in the video (John Bangs) described as an education expert, gives a detailed explanation into why it is more effective and how each subject would benefit from varying class sizes. He also explains that no matter how qualified the teacher may be, if put against class sizes of 30-40+, there is simply not enough time for ‘dialogic learning’ (or one teacher to one student) as the ratio is just too large.

“It’s just not possible”

So sarcasm aside, the story was actually quite an effective and informative piece on education!